Alternative
by SilverWolf7
Summary: The Doctor wants to know why Rose is acting the way she is. He didn't expect her to go off about it. Part of my Alternatives series.


AU School Reunion fight outside the chip shop. Because that scene was the first time I really looked at Rose and frowned, wondering who the heck she was as opposed to who she had been first season. It was this part that got me thinking her love had changed to obsession, and season 4 didn't help with that. If anything, it solidified it into cold, hard fact.

Not a Rose bashing fic, despite this. Just a fight carried out in its entirety before it was finished in the show by a half finished sentence. It's in the Doctor's POV and at the time, he's pissed off. And so is Rose. This is more like the fight Rose and Nine had about the mistake she made in saving her father.

Still, die hard Rose fans might not like this.

Alternatives

"As opposed to what?!" the Doctor stated, looking to Rose, who looked like she was about to bite his head off for ever daring travel with other people.

Did she honestly believe that he had never travelled with anyone until she came along? Was that a teen thing, or a specific Rose thing? He had travelled with a lot of people in his life, quite a few as old, some even younger, than Rose, and none of them had gone into such a snit at finding out he had other friends.

She was talking now, and he could barely hear what she was saying. He shook his head slightly and the end of her sentence crawled into his ears and parked in his brain.

"No, this is really showing me the future."

He glared. "Oh, so that's how you feel is it? I can't have anyone in my life ever, but you? I didn't think you were that selfish Rose."

She looked taken aback for a second, before she turned her Tyler glare on even further. "Selfish am I? I'm the one being selfish? I'm not the one who kept everything quiet about it before. I'm not the one who didn't say anything about ever being with other people. Who was she to you anyway Doctor?"

His own glare slipped a bit. "She was a friend, Rose. Like you are. We were close once. And I had to leave her to go home. That was way back when humans weren't allowed. I'd do the same to you too, if that rule, not to mention the place, still existed, but they don't. I'm sorry if maybe I have had friends you don't approve of." He scowled.

"Still, you could have said something."

He rolled his eyes. "Remember when that ship crashed into Big Ben, and everyone went alien crazy? Remember that conversation up on the roof, the one where I said I was 900? You honestly expect to believe that you were the one and only and ever _will_ be the one and only person I have ever travelled with? Grow up, Rose. What about Jack? Did you forget about him? Or how about Adam? Or aren't they included since you're the one who dragged them both on board originally?"

"So?" She hugged her arms close to her body and shook her head. "Answer my question. Why didn't you say anything?"

He threw his hands in the air and sighed loudly. "I didn't ever peg you as being thick, Rose, but tonight, tonight you really are being a bit stupid. It shouldn't _need_ saying. It shouldn't matter."

"It matters to _me_!"

He ran his hands through his hair, usually a gesture he had in this new body for when he was fired up and on a roll with thinking out some plot, but this time he did it out of pure frustration. "It matters to you that I have other friends? Had other friends? Is this in concern over my emotional well being, or because you want to keep me far away from anyone I've ever met that you might not like, or are jealous over."

"Jealous?! Who said I was jealous?"

He rolled his eyes again and shoved his hands deep in his pockets before he started ripping out chunks of hair. "Ever since Sarah Jane said that my assistants are getting younger, you turned into a completely different person."

She started tapping a foot in a rather Jackie-like move. "Maybe I was angry at being called your assistant."

His hands balled into fists where they were, before he pulled them out of his pockets to throw them in the air. "Oh, well then, would it help at all if I told you that back then, I actually used the word assistant for my companions. For the people I travel with? In a few cases, it was extremely appropriate too. In an actual work sense. She was using the word she _knew_, Rose."

"She didn't have to make a crack about my age!"

He closed his eyes and could barely stop himself from growling. He settled with rubbing at his face. "She wasn't making a crack at you; she was making a crack at _me_. And there you go again, thinking that the whole world revolves around you."

She looked to the ground, and he could see that she was wavering slightly. Maybe some of what he was saying was sinking in. Of course, it didn't help that as soon as Rose had started, so had Sarah Jane.

"You know, if you had told me all this stuff before, then maybe I wouldn't be so in your face about it."

And he turned his back on her, shaking his head as he did so, making his way towards the car where Mickey and Sarah Jane were both pretending that they couldn't hear. "Sometimes I think you will never learn that there are things that don't need saying. And my entire life story is one of them. You don't need to know it, and you'd be long gone before I got to acquiring my TARDIS. So, either learn fast, or I'll be leaving you here for a few days to cool down."

He didn't see her reaction, but he did notice Mickey's wince and Sarah Jane looking away. Brilliant. He might as well push everyone away. He was doing a brilliant enough job of it right that moment. He got into the car and slammed the door, waiting for the others to follow, a lot more subdued than before.

He was still in a crappy mood the next day, when he confronted the Krillitanes.

He wondered if using the paradigm would change things back to the way they were.


End file.
